Great prog from italy! Recently reissue the two Roberto Colombo works (Sfogatevi bestie and Botte da Orbi) with fantastic combo plays 'a sorta' of incredible progressive-fusion-mediterranean-jazz. Very recommended for all prog fans!!!!!

Monday, July 23, 2007

ETHOS were an excellent 70’s US based 4 piece prog rock band whose second album “Open Up” remains a landmark album for this music lover. Fans of classic 70’s prog will love this album with their great epic passages (a la YES) with complex syncopation (aka SPOCK'S BEARD, GENTLE GIANT and KING CRIMSON) and pastoral moments full of the glorious mellotron. In many ways they remind me musically of a cross of FIREBALLET and YES. ETHOS were Brad Stephenson (bass, string bass, moog bass pedals), Mark Richards (percussion, moog drums), Michael Ponczek (mini moog, poly-moog, Hammond, organ, Rhodes piano, mellotron) and Wil Sharpe (acoustic and electric guitars). Their overall sound is full and rich with some real creative and challenging parts yet controlled and highly symphonic. A truely amazing little album that I recommed to all prog rock lovers. (James Unger).

Coming from Basle (NW Switzerland on the language border between the Alemanics and the Romands), this unusual quartet of musicians has a strange line-up. Hauser is one of the better percussionists (still playing but in jazz bands nowadays), and bassist Cerletti (the only non-Alemanic in the band) is certainly excellent plays also acoustic guitar. The other two, Fri and Grieder, share the wind instruments with the vocals. That's it! No KB and almost no el. guitars, at least on the first two albums. This group is one of the real gems still unknown to most progheads, developing a fusion between classical and rock much like early MANEIGE did but also includes some influences from VDGG (mostly the sax but sometimes also the singing) and also KING CRIMSON to a lesser extent. While having some success locally, they only managed three studio albums of which the first two are now on CD. Of those two albums "Movin' On" is their best but their debut is also excellent.CIRCUS is certainly recommended to everyone who loves great interplay between musicians and to progheads not afraid of a little adventure in their musical endeavours. (Hugues Chantraine)

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

The original Northwind band was founded in 1968 by Roland Ernest and Jan Stepka. They were inspired originally by bands such as the Doors, Cream, the Moody Blues, the Beatles, and Procol Harum. Northwind was later heavily influenced by ELP, Yes, King Crimson, and Genesis. Echoes of these styles are found in the Distant Shores recordings. The band went through four membership changes. The first incarnation had drummer Steve White. In 1970 they created and performed an original rock opera entitled “Looking Back.” In 1972 they recorded an untitled demo album featuring the song “Last Day at Lokun.” Tom Iacaboni replaced Steve White on drums when Steve left the band to pursue the guitar. In 1974 Tom, Jan and Roland recorded the world famous (in collectors' circles) Northwind demo album in Roland's family's basement. This album is often erroneously referred to as “Woods of Zandor.” Tom was at heart a jazz drummer, and when he left Tim Cahill joined on drums and percussion. For a short period, Bob Pascoe contributed his rock guitar to Northwind's sound. Northwind then performed mostly in clubs and created a reputation in Canada. This period largely had the band playing covers of other rock bands' material. In 1977 returning to original music, Roland took over guitars and the band added the talents of Rob Foster on wind instruments. In 1978 the band recorded their magnum opus “Distant Shores” in Roland's family's basement in Sterling Heights, Michigan. One song, “Just Yesterday,” was released as part of a local radio station's compilation of Detroit area bands' music entitled “Home Grown.” Tim Cahill's religious calling conflicted with his perception of the rock and roll lifestyle leading him to leave secular musical performing. Howard Wells joined the band on drums and percussion for rehearsals while Roland and the band's manager Ron Geddish vainly persued a record contract. Northwind broke up in 1978 largely because of this failure. In the end, the “Distant Shores” songs were never performed outside of Roland's basement. Jan Stepka created this site in 2002 to keep Northwind's music and memory alive

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

True Myth was formed in London, Ontario as an offshoot of a class project by students at Fanshawe College -- a music school. Tom Treumuth was the keyboardist and helped the band secure a deal with Warner Bros. Records in 1979. Their debut album was the first digital album recorded in Canada and the second in the world (the first being Stevie Wonder's 'Secret Life Of Plants'). Treumuth soon opened his own record label, Hypnotic, and the band switched for their follow-up album 'Telegram' in 1981. In the meantime, Treumuth had been moonlighting with another Toronto studio project The Fictions on their debut album in 1980. Treumuth would go on to produce the likes of Honeymoon Suite and dozens of other Canadian acts during the 1980's many of them on his surviving indie label Hypnotic.

Track list: 1.Reach For The Heavens (6:05) 2. Light Years Before (6:06) 3. It’s Got To Be (3:13)
4. Time and Time Again (4:45) 5. Space Promenade (4:28) 6. In The Mist (4:56) 7. Song For The World (4:21)

Monday, July 16, 2007

This band with a strange name and an unusual line-up is still less-known to many italian prog experts, yet their only album is surprisingly good and has very interesting moments. The weakest point is the singer's voice, squeaky and monotonous and with some spoken parts to connect the musical themes, but musically the band is competent and the album reveals some jazz-rock influences in the Canterbury vein (listen to some jazzy guitar parts or the use of bassoon). Acoustic parts are prevalent but there are sudden rhythm changes and complex arrangements and the album can be a nice surprise. The nine tracks are connected to form two long suites.
Gruppo d'Alternativa was based in Milan, and Ipotesi was conceived as a rock opera, and even represented at Teatro Uomo with good success. It was based on the death of a friend of the group's singer, in a road accident. The LP, released on Harvest, contained only a small part of the opera, that originally relied much more on improvisation, most of the band members being influenced by such jazz artists as Miles Davis. But it was not successful, and the record company asked the group to release a more commercial second album, causing their decision to take separate ways.
Little is known of the former group members after the end of GdA. Leonardo Dosso played for some time with Stormy Six, on their Cliché and L'apprendista albums, and after the end of his musical studies he dedicated to chamber music and formed the Arnold woodwind quintet, playing with them for over 20 years. He is also a bassoon teacher and collaborates with baroque music ensembles.

An album that's been ignored by many collectors for years, Ipotesi has never been reissued on vinyl, but it's not impossible to find though never particularly cheap.The nice gatefold cover is laminated, but non-laminated copies also exist, these being presumably, as in many other EMI issues, later pressings. No counterfeits exist nor foreign issues.
The only CD reissue ever made for this album is the one by AMS, released in 2007 with mini-LP gatefold cover.

Hermann Szobel is/was a pianist and composer. He produced and recorded one album, titled "Szobel," at the age of 18, demonstrating, in the words of a "Down Beat" reviewer (9 September 1976), "a conception and technique far in advance of most musicians twice his age." According to the artist biography included with promotional copies of the album, Szobel was born in Vienna in 1958 and was "a child prodigy who began his classical training at the age of six" who "spent the majority of his practicing hours on pieces by Chopin." The bio states that pianists Martial Solal and Keith Jarrett were two major influences on his work. Szobel is a nephew of the late rock-concert promoter Bill Graham. "Szobel" features extremely complicated compositions comparable to those of Frank Zappa. The music is jazz-based but contains elements of rock and Western classical music. Szobel's impressive piano virtuosity is noticeable throughout the album. The other musicians on "Szobel" are Michael Visceglia on bass, Bob Goldman on drums, Dave Samuels on percussion including marimba and vibraphone, and Vadim Vyadro on tenor sax, clarinet, and flute. Obscure even when it was released (on Arista Records) in 1976, "Szobel" does not exist on CD. Hermann Szobel disappeared from the music world after this album and has never been heard from again. (wikipedia)

Fantastic powerfull mixture of progressive jazz close to the Zappa jazz-rock 'era' with complex textures harmonic of rare beauty and intensity.

Orchestra Njervudarov was formed in Bologna, though some of the members were from the Marche. The band nucleus existed since mid 70's under the name Frogs, playing a jazz-rock inspired from Soft Machine and Weather Report. The new name was chosen not long before the album release in 1979, and the group had a limited live activity.Con le orecchie di Eros, the only recorded release by Orchestra Njervudarov, is an album with a very strange story, being well known by name to many italian prog fans throughout the words, though few of them had heard it, making it a sort of legendary (and difficult to find) record.Released in 1979, probably in a limited quantity, by EMI, and badly promoted, the album is an unusual mix of Canterbury-inspired instrumental jazz prog (not unlike Picchio Dal Pozzo's albums), Zappa-esque sounds and atmospheres and even a touch of ironical new wave like in the long-titled Rapporto Njervudarov sulla teoria degli opposti estremismi (to be honest, this is the only track to sound totally out of place in the entire album, with crazy lyrics in the same vein as some "demential" italian punk bands of the late 70's).The LP has some very good and intense moments, though it's not particularly representative of the typical italian prog sound.

Bass player Roberto Costa has long collaborated with Lucio Dalla and other italian pop artists like Luca Carboni and Luca Barbarossa. Even guitarist Bruno Mariani has briefly played with Lucio Dalla, as well as with Ron, Samuele Bersani, Ornella Vanoni and others.Drummer Adriano Pedini still plays in the jazz field after having a long career as sessionman.

A rare album, Con le orecchie di Eros has never been reissued on vinyl nor CD. It has an odd number in the EMI catalogue, as the 3C064-18139 used for this record seems to be dated 1976 like Baricentro's Sconcerto from that year (no.3C064-18152). Probably the LP was given an unused old catalogue number. No counterfeits exist nor foreign vinyl issues. (italianprog)